Learning ABC's

There are so many ways to learn the alphabet, I try to make all of Connor's learning experiences fun and interactive. This keeps him involved and from his mind wondering. He actually enjoys learning doing it this way and usually can not wait to see what we will be doing next. I found these templates on childcareland.com, she has a lot of free printables and you can buy her items as well. This is basic matching the letter piece with the "game board".

Pattern, Colors, and Shapes....Oh My

I wanted to create something for Connor to learn the basics of patterns, shapes, and colors all in one. I went to the Dollar Tree and found foam pieces and large foam beads. I tacky glued the beads onto the foam in a pattern then added to the baggie enough pieces for him to make his pattern look like mine. Connor loves this! I made about 20-25 of these all for only $2! Cheap and educational....... can not go wrong.

Monekying Around Burpcloth

Here is my next burp cloth for baby Lily! Again it will have the rag effect after it has been washed a few times. Enjoy

Creating Rag Cloth Burp Cloths

This time I just sewed all the way around the burp cloths. Cute in on the sides to the stitch line every 1/4 inch. I used flannel for a softer feel and to help it fray more to give the rage effect. Decorated with ribbon. So cute once again! It has been snipped around the edges but not washed yet, the more washes the more rage effect and the cuter they will get!

Complete Matching Set

Here are all of the items together! So cute I love them!

Creating a Stylish Baby Wipe Case

And again.....another idea from handmadebyjill. Love her!

I bought a baby wipe case from the dollar store used the same Pol a Dot fabric and covered the case used ribbon to accent and trim it! How cute is this!

Creating Bibs

Yet another idea from handmadebyjill.blogspot.com.

A baby bib with the backing made out of terry cloth to use to wipe baby's face and hands after eating! Love this!The Polk a Dot fabric I am using for the matching set I found at Goodwill in a stack of fabric for only $2.99 for the whole stack!

Gotta love Goodwill!

I had hemmed a pair of my husband's cords, saved the piece I cut off for latter use. Cut out a "L" shape for Lily and presto a monogrammed bib!

Burp Cloth Creations

You can never have two many burp cloths! Again another great idea from handmadebyjill.blogspot.com.

This one I sewed and turned inside out added buttons to spruce it up, it is a very cute and stylish burpcloth!

Pictre is not the greatest but you will see the completed burpcloth in another post with all of the matching items to go with it!

Creating an adorable Floppy Hat

Lily will be wearing alot of Floppy Hats, I found Floppy Hats at Goodwill for 25 cents per hat new with the tags!

I ordered buttons off of EBay, a bag of 600 buttons all different styles, colors, and shapes for $9.99. 600 BUTTONS!

I took the Floppy Hats added some buttons and here they are, adorable!

Creating a Baby Hat

My new baby niece will be born on May 6th, Lillian Elizabeth is one of 6 children for my sister. I wanted to give her a present like none other this time around. So I found a wonderful blog called handmadebyjill.blogspot.com her items are wonderful, she also has many links to other creators and this inspired me to create this blog and to begin sewing. If you do a Google search for any item you are thinking of sewing many sites will come up in search results. The blogs with tutorials are wonderful. I found all of my patterns on line and printed right from my home printer.

My sewing machine I found on Craig's List for only ten dollars, it came with a bag of supplies, I then went on EBay and found a tremendous amount of items. My "trademark" is to use the little extras like buttons, ribbons, etc to give each piece an added little touch.

Here is a baby hat that I made out of an adult long sleeved shirt. I cut the sleeves of and shaped the way I wanted to. The possibilities for the hats are endless be creative.

The long sleeved shirt I picked up at Goodwill for only $2.99 and was able to make two baby hats out of it!

Freebies are Wonderful

Find and use Freebies
o Search online for free offers
o You can have your mail box over flowing with items such as laundry soap/nail polish/formula/diapers/baby blankets/food products of all types/the list is endless.
o Try out the following website and Google search Free offers.
§ Mysavings.com
§ Freenapkin.com
§ Desperatedollars.com

Freebies are Wonderful

Find and use Freebies
o Search online for free offers
o You can have your mail box over flowing with items such as laundry soap/nail polish/formula/diapers/baby blankets/food products of all types/the list is endless.
o Try out the following website and Google search Free offers.
§ Mysavings.com
§ Freenapkin.com
§ Desperatedollars.com

Simple Activites for Kids

Activities for kids with a low budget.
o Make a colleague- Give them newspaper and magazines and a topic in mind. Have them cut pictures out and glue on construction paper. Then have them tell you all about it.
o Garden- Plant dried out or store bought seeds in styro-foam cups transplant outside once they are ready.
o Dig it- give them a shovel and a bucket send them outside to shovel rocks/dirt/snow. Inside with a bowl and spoon shovel beans/popcorn/rice/flour/sugar.
o Dance and Sing- turn up the radio and have a blast.
o Play catch-outside with balls/water balloons/etc or inside with rolled up socks/bean bags/etc
o Sidewalk Chalk- Hours of fun
o Bubbles-make your own with dish soap and water
o Masks- Make masks from paper bag/paper plates
o Cards-UNO/Crazy 8s/Go fish/Old Maid/Slap Jack
o Play Office- give you child junk mail/calculator/pen and pencils and watch the fun begin
o Picnic-make sandwiches’ and eat outside for lunch or dinner.
o Charades-little ones can act like animals
o Treats- make cookies and let them decorate
o I Spy
o Board Games
o Journal- Teach your child to write everyday in the journal about how they feel and draw pictures.

Play Dough Creations

Make your own play dough
o 1 cup flour
o 1 cup water
o ½ cup salt
o 2 TBL Cream of Tarter
o 2 TBL Oil
o Several drops of food color of choice
o Step it up a notch add a kool aid packet to add scent and more fun for your kiddos. Add glitter to give it some sparkle and more fun!
o Put in a sauce pan over medium heat. Once it forms into a ball remove from heat. Let cool completely.
o Store in an air tight container. If it gets a little dry add somewhat and mix and reseal.

Play Dough Creations

Make your own play dough
o 1 cup flour
o 1 cup water
o ½ cup salt
o 2 TBL Cream of Tarter
o 2 TBL Oil
o Several drops of food color of choice
o Step it up a notch add a kool aid packet to add scent and more fun for your kiddos. Add glitter to give it some sparkle and more fun!
o Put in a sauce pan over medium heat. Once it forms into a ball remove from heat. Let cool completely.
o Store in an air tight container. If it gets a little dry add somewhat and mix and reseal.

Make your own Baby Wipes

Make your own baby wipes:
o Bounty or Viva Paper towels only they are the strongest
o Cut paper towel roll in half
o Place in a cylinder plastic container with a lid
o Mix in large bowl 2 cups water and 2 tsp baby bath liquid and 2 tsp of baby oil.
o Pour mixture over paper towels in plastic container
o Let sit Take the lid to the container and cut and “X” in it.
o After all liquid is absorbed pull the card board core out of the paper towels the paper towel attached to the roll should come up poke this through the bottom of the “X”.You have baby wipes

Homemade Cleaning Supplies

Make your own supplies:
o Windows: mix 1 part vinegar and 1 part water in a spray bottle
o Soft Scrub: mix ½ cup baking soda add enough water to make it frosting like consistency only make enough to use on each cleaning project.
o Oven cleaner: Cover the bottom of the oven or stove top with water. Then cover water with baking soda until white let sit about ½ hour then cover once more with baking soda. Let sit over night. In the morning wipe clean. Any remaining residue or grease that is left dab some dish soap on a sponge and wipe clean.
o All purpose cleaner: ½ tsp laundry soap (powder form), a dab of dish soap, two cups hot water. Shake until laundry soap is dissolved completely in spray bottle.
o Furniture Polish: ½ tsp olive oil, ½ cup lemon juice or vinegar, Mix in glass jar. Dab a soft rag into the jar wipe furniture clean. Cover glass jar and store.
o Room Deodorizer: (kitchen / bath room) Spray your wood cutting board with straight 5% vinegar. Let sit over night as it evaporates it deodorizes the air; no need to clean of vinegar is safe. In the bath room, keep a spray bottle of the same solution of vinegar spray to clean rim of toilet and around toilet at the floor. This removes the urine smell and cleans all at once.
o Kitchen sink stain removal: Fill sink with hot water add ½ cup straight bleach let sit for 45 minutes and drain. All stains will be removed.
o Sanitizer/All Purpose Cleaner: ¼ - ½ cup Bleach to a gallon of water, mix and pour into a spray bottle. Refill as needed.
o Mold and Mildew Removal: 2 tsp tree oil 2 cups water mix in spray bottle spray on affected area wipe clean.
o Mold Removal: Pour Straight vinegar onto mold and let sink for 2 hours, If you can handle the smell leave there if not wipe it clean.
o Garbage disposal cleaner, Quarter a lemon and grind in disposal this will removal odors and cleans
o Carpet Stains: 1 cup white vinegar and 1 cup water scrub with brush let sit for several minutes. For heavy staining mix ¼ cup salt ¼ cup vinegar, ¼ cup borax mix to a paste apply to stains let sit for several hours and vacuum clean.
o Dishwasher soap: Mix borax and laundry soap) powder form) in equal parts.
o Remove marks from walls: Baking Soda to a damp sponge and wipe clean (should work for any markings crayon pen scuffs etc
o Rust remover: pour salt of rusty area squeeze lime juice until salt is soaked let sit over night and wipe clean.
o Stickers on wall: rub straight vinegar over them several times or until well soaked let sit 15 minutes and remove sticker.
o Toilet bowl cleaner: ¼ cup baking soda and 1 cup vinegar let sit for few minutes and clean with toilet brush.

Creation in School Projects

My daughter had to do a project on Abe Lincoln. Mind you this is a First Grade level. She was only allowed to use a poster board. So instead of making a plain poster board, we created Abe's Black Hat from poster board, typed out facts about Abe and glued them onto red card stock, then glued them onto Abe's Hat. This made a great impression at her school and was alot of fun making with her.

Cake Creations

We make all of our birthday cakes and design them to fit the theme of the party so far we have made a Pig, Firetruck, Halloween, Transformer, Thomas, Batman, I have a few of the pics and will add more later. My cakes are pretty simple I do not do any fondant or crazy details like that, I usually find a Wilton Cake pan in the shape I need, or cut and form the cake as need, or simple cupcakes work great too. I use a pipping bag with different tips to make fancy designs and to write on the cake with. Watch for more cake creations to come.

Kids Kitchen Creations

In our home school we teach our son how to cook. Due to his life threatening, to touch, allergies we feel that beginning to teach him to cook "safely" at an early age will only benefit him in the future.

All of our recipes are made allergen free specific to his needs. His allergens include dairy, egg, peanut, tree nut, rice, and potato. When he was diagnosed at 6 months old it was life altering. The first trip to the grocery store we were there over 4 hours and left with only a few bags full of food. Now 4 years later and a lot of research and reading labels we are in and out of the grocery store in no time with a complete cart full. The hardest part was learning how to cook allergen free. Changing all of the wonderful recipes we that we grew up on to recipes that did not contain any of his allergens was a long process.

But again- 4 years later we are pros and can make just about anything you would like to eat but allergy free.

Here are some pics of Connor making cookies for is Dinosaur week at HS. Along with some pics of my sisters children over making Christmas Candy and Cookies.

Professional Pictures at Home

With three children the price of taking professional pictures is out of this world. I decided this year to try to take pictures myself at home and then crop and alter them as needed on my own computer. I then upload them to snapfish.com and searched promo codes for discounts on what I wanted to buy from their site. I was able to creat professional looking pictures of all sizes and even a collague for little to nothing! Here is a sample of my pics from this Christmas.

A is for Alligator

On our first day of Preschool for Connor we had fun exploring A and Alligator's! We went out side and collected sticks of all sizes. The big sticks where the momma alligator's and the small ones were the babies. We then took them inside and filled up my kitchen sink with water and watched how Alligator's (sticks) float in water. We also pretended to walk and a log (piece of tape) across a swamp with alligators on each side trying to get us. Great fun learning science and the alphabet!

Creating a Pink and Brown Dresser

I was lucky enough to be given an old antique dresser with a mirror from a Freecycle.org user. I cleaned it and began to paint it pink and brown for my daughter's room. I used a protractor to make each of the circles and painted away. Here it is not quite fnished yet. She also had a smaller 4 drawer unit in her room already and I paint it as well. I will update with completed pics in a few days. Enjoy! and start creating!